March 22, 1983 – AM General wins HUMVEE contract
In 1979, the U.S. Army drafted specifications for a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, or HMMWV for short, better known as Humvee. They released them to the public in hopes of finding a company to build the new military troop transports. A total of 61 companies initially showed interest in the project, but when the deadline for prototypes hit, only three had submissions, Chrysler, Teledyne Continental and AM General. After putting more than 600,000 miles on the prototypes during testing in conditions ranging from arctic to desert, the US Armed Forces awarded AM General the government contract for 55,000 vehicles on this day in 1983.
The Humvee would first see combat during the US invasion of Panama in 1989 before seeing heavy action in the Gulf War two years later. A...
